Facebook has announced that it will be closing down its Parse application platform in January 2017, marking its withdrawal from the race to challenge Google, Amazon and Microsoft in the IoT application market. Parse provides the backend services that the applications require to function, and with the exit, it appears that Facebook has turned its attention away from a platform that looked set to deliver significant IoT revenues. It acquired Parse for some $85m back in 2013, and grew the number of applications it hosted from around 60,000 to today’s 600,000-plus figure. Back in March, Facebook launched a new Parse SDK for developers to use, and at the time, it appeared that the company was planning allow these apps to…